Rules and Reasons
by AmalgamationofFaces
Summary: Hiro just doesn't know where to draw the line when it comes to following rules. Maybe punishment from his own mind will convince him otherwise. *Two chapters planned* *Tadashi is a far nicer older sibling than I would be.* *Canon compliant*
1. The Catalyst

*A.N.: So, I wrote this chapter a while ago, but I forgot to post it. The next chapter is on my to-do list, which will probably be tackled when school lets out May 8th.*

Hiro was used to breaking unnecessary rules.

-No gummy bears before dinner.-

_Don't get caught._

-No tinkering after midnight when there's school the next day.-

_Tadashi sleeps like a log, and never notices as long as everything is cleaned up in the morning._

-No experiments involving Mochi_.-_

_Then what was the darn cat __**good for**__?_

...

-No horror movies.-

"They'll give you nightmares, Hiro." "You're too young to watch them." "You don't need that stuff in your head."

_Blah, blah, blah._

Maybe that rule would have applied to him when he was younger, but he was thirteen, and a genius. Practically an adult, in his opinion. He could handle one little R-rated horror movie.

Besides that, the premise was right up his alley. A group of popular students being haunted by the tech-savvy ghost of a recently deceased geek? Where the circumstances surrounding said geek's death were questionable? And the ghost uses technology to enact his revenge?

_Perfect._

Hiro slid the disk into the side of the TV before plopping himself onto the couch and bundling into his cocoon of blankets. He shifted until he was comfortably sprawled out on the cushions. Once he was comfortable, he realized the remote control was just out of reach, so he stretched to reach it.

A high-pitched scream from the TV made Hiro jump and tense before he realized it was the main menu's background preview, complete with typical static-filled screens and jarred pictures. Finally getting hold of the remote, Hiro pressed play and resettled against the arm of the couch.

Aunt Cass was busy downstairs in the café, and Tadashi had a project that, while he was being super secretive about it, promised to keep him at school until late that evening. Hiro had the house to himself. He momentarily considered getting up to turn the lights on again, but decided against it.

He'd be _fine._

Tadashi rubbed at the side of his face as he trudged his way up the stairs. He'd stayed at the lab far past his usual hours, as Baymax, or what he hoped would one day earn the name, decided it would be a good idea to attack its creator. He really hoped there wouldn't be bruising in the morning.

As he turned to make his way up the second flight of stairs, a dim, flickering light caught his attention. Glancing over, he saw by the light of the TV that Hiro was once again precariously sprawled out on the edge of the couch, limbs and blankets hanging askew as he seemingly defied gravity in order to remain off the floor. He was also dead asleep.

Sighing and pinching the bridge of his nose, Tadashi approached the couch and debated on the merits of trying to wake him up versus carrying him up a flight of stairs while exhausted and battered from Baymax's flailing arms. Tadashi had almost reached Hiro when a scream stopped him in his tracks and a rush of adrenalin coursed through his body.

A split-second of attempting to find the source of the cry was enough for him to finally notice the movie currently displaying its menu on the screen.

_He __**didn't.**_

Except, of course he had. When was the last time Hiro had explicitly followed directions from anyone? Tadashi felt a stress headache begin to push at his temples as he considered the sleepless nights to come, as Hiro inevitably would rapidly devolve into paranoia. He was actually shocked that he had managed to fall asleep on the couch in the first place.

_Maybe it wouldn't be so bad this time. Maybe Hiro had fallen asleep before the movie got too bad. Maybe the whole crisis would be averted and everyone in the house would be able to retain his or her preferred sleep schedule. ...and maybe dragons and unicorns would start dating. _

Tadashi began to mentally prepare himself for the coming days and looked at the bundle, searching for a possible way to lift it in order to carry the currently sleeping knucklehead upstairs without waking him. Perhaps he could still salvage this night's sleep. Goodness knows he wouldn't get any rest in the near future.

He would never be able to bring himself to ignore Hiro, especially when his little brother knew how to adopt the frightened puppy look that Tadashi wished he were immune to after years of dealing with it. As it was, he'd be there for Hiro through the impending nightmares, even though he had brought this on himself. The rule regarding horror films had been put in place specifically because of Hiro's previous reactions to things that scared him, whether they were supposed to be scary or not.

Though he probably couldn't remember, when Hiro had been younger, there had been a popular documentary about a woman and her friendly gorilla. The gorilla never expressed itself as violent or aggressive in any way, but whenever it came on screen, Hiro would hide his face and eventually he ran out of the room, crying about the big black monster that was going to eat the lady.

They never viewed it again after that, but for months Hiro would wake up screaming about the monster and how it was going to eat Tadashi and take away Aunt Cass, just like the monster in the film. Trying to convince him that the gorilla was friendly and would never hurt him was futile, and eventually Tadashi gave Hiro a little box that lit up in different colors when the buttons were pressed. He said that the red button would make a noise that would keep the gorilla away from him, like a dog whistle, even though he couldn't hear it himself.

Tadashi didn't consider it a lie... more of a vacuous truth. The button would keep the gorilla away if it were coming after him. Since it wasn't coming after him, the button's functionality didn't matter. He just wanted to get more than a couple of hours of sleep at night. Hiro, of course, believed him, and the nightmares quickly stopped after that.

Thoughts returning to the present, Tadashi realized there was no way that he could move Hiro from his current position when he was as physically tired as he was. When the scream echoed from the TV again, he reached over and turned it off, slipping the disc back into the box it had come in.

_Offline_... **_wonderful. _**_Though, maybe this would help with Hiro's recent addiction to video games. _

Hiro began to mumble in his sleep, his eyebrows pulling together in response to whatever was playing in his head. When Hiro's frown became more prominent, Tadashi decided to bite the bullet and try to wake him as gently as he could so they could both go upstairs. If he left him on the couch, Hiro might wake from a nightmare alone, and he was far more difficult to console if there was time for his mind to conjure terrible theories about the fates of the other members of the house.

"Hiro," Tadashi knew better than to try and touch him if he seemed to be already in a nightmare. He had learned the hard way that Hiro's scrawny limbs could do some damage, particularly to the face, if he was provoked or scared.

Tadashi crouched at the head of the couch and spoke louder, hoping that he wouldn't wake their Aunt, who had supposedly gone to bed already. "Come on, buddy. You need to wake up. _Hiro._"

At the second iteration of his name, Hiro jolted awake, but quickly lost his sense of balance and teetered off the couch. Tadashi winced at the thud that resulted from Hiro meeting the floor, though thankfully the multiple blankets that Hiro had piled around him broke the fall.

"-mmph. Whas... 'Dashi?" Hiro looked up at his brother through sleep-bleared eyes. There was no panic, so his mind hadn't retained whatever he'd been dreaming of.

"Care to explain this?" Tadashi tapped the DVD box twice on his fallen brother's head and earned a sheepish and guilty grin in return.

"Uh... I'm holding it for a friend?" Hiro looked up at his brother with what was possibly the fakest smile he could muster. Tadashi was unimpressed.

"...you couldn't even come up with something original? You're really losing your edge." Teasing was safe, and Hiro didn't seem to be acting strange, so maybe he _had_ fallen asleep before the movie. Or maybe he hadn't started it at all.

_One can hope..._

"Would you believe me if I had?" Hiro began to gather up the blankets, and did a double take when Tadashi reached over to help pick them up. "What happened to your _face_?"

So he hadn't escaped bruising. _Just perfect._

"My project decided it wasn't colorful enough... and don't change the subject."

"Hehe, only the ultimate nerd advances from bullies to getting beat up by his own creation."

"Unbelievable." Tadashi dropped the blankets he had gathered onto Hiro's head, grinning when they slid off to reveal that they had made Hiro's hair even more disheveled than it had been before. Hiro's pout might also have something to do with it. "Now, come on. You know you aren't supposed to watch horror movies. Especially not..." Tadashi checked the front of the box and his eyes widened in disbelief. "_R-rated_ ones. _Hiro!"_

"Who says I watched it?" Hiro had finally gained a hold of all of the blankets and began to make his way to the stairs.

Tadashi paused, realizing that he didn't have any _proof_ that Hiro had watched it, but... "So, you enjoy falling asleep to the sound of a girl screaming on loop? That's still pretty messed up."

"Maybe I find it relaxing."

"_Hiro."_ Tadashi followed his brother up the stairs, his patience wearing thinner than he'd like with the stress of school and upcoming midterms and now _this. _He wished Hiro would just be honest with him so they could at least be on the same page.

"Whaaaat?" Hiro dumped the pile of blankets on his bed, and turned to face his older brother, arms folded. He relaxed his posture when he got a good look at his brother and noticed dark bruises under his eyes that most likely weren't caused by whatever he'd been working on... at least not directly. He looked so _tired._ Hiro sighed. "Fine. I watched it. Happy? But it wasn't _that _bad, and if you look at the box, the rating is for explicit scenes, not gore or anything. I'll be fine."

"That's not much better, Hiro. You're _thirteen_, you don't need to be watching _any_ of this stuff." Tadashi set the box down on his dresser, running a hand over the back of his neck as he looked back at Hiro. "Why did you feel the need to do this? Why was any of this necessary?"

Hiro scuffed the ground with his foot, looking down to avoid his brother's gaze. "It doesn't matter. It's done, can't you just let it go? It isn't _that_ big a deal."

"Maybe _this_ wasn't a huge deal, but you can't just lie to me and go behind my back with stuff like this." Tadashi took a steadying breath as he pushed the palms of his hands into his eyes, before running them back through his hair, mussing it slightly. "How am I supposed to help you, if I don't even know what's going on?"

"You don't _need_ to always help me. I _can_ do things on my own, you know." Hiro almost took his words back when he saw Tadashi's face fall, but he didn't think it would do much good, and it would be a lie, anyway. He decided to soften the blow instead. "I'll come to you if I _really _need help, and you'll notice if I'm _actually_ in trouble, so you don't need to worry about me, okay?"

Tadashi shook his head, letting out a sigh as he decided to let this slide, at least for the night. "Alright, knucklehead... just know I'll always be here, whenever you need anything."

Hiro grinned, burrowing his way under the mountain of blankets on his bed. "Of course you will, nerd, where else would you be?"


	2. Resolution

*A.N. Well, here's the second part. I kinda forgot about it... ^^'. Anyway, enjoy!*

The room was too quiet.

Hiro had succeeded on bluffing his way through Tadashi's mini interrogation, and truthfully, he'd been fine. While the lights were on. And his brother was awake and nagging him.

But Hiro had shut his eyes, waiting to go back to sleep, and an hour had passed. Then two. And another. How much time was passing? How long did he have to last until morning?

He couldn't see the clock across the room from him, and the digital one required him to reach out and move it to see it. Not an option. He had to convince the ghost that he was dead too, or it'd get him.

He tried to convince himself he was being ridiculous. Even if ghosts _did_ exist, it couldn't hurt him. He hadn't done anything to merit it. It was completely silly!

Hiro let his eyes drift shut, he was being ridiculous, this place wasn't even haunted-

Across the room, the computer whooshed to life, the small blue power circle lighting up the room. In comparison to the complete darkness the room had previously been, it was impossible to ignore. Hiro had shut it off. He'd shut it off specifically, before he'd gone downstairs. He remembered. And no one had been awake to use it.

Hiro curled deeper into his blankets- _not real, not real, not real- _and tried to make himself as small as possible, like a lump in the bedspread. A ghost wouldn't attack a lump, right?

The temperature under the blankets increased, and the air became staler and staler, but Hiro didn't dare poke his head out to get fresh air. Not with the tech ghost on the loose. Nope, no way.

The world became hazy. Hiro's eyes drooped shut, the pounding of exhaustion in his skull beating out a lullaby that, despite his fear, dragged him into sleep.

Tadashi was woken by a stream of muttering, and rolled over to pull his pillow over his head. In the silence of the room it could still be heard, despite the barrier. It was just loud enough that Tadashi couldn't ignore it and go back to sleep.

_Who's Hiro talking to at this time of night..._ Tadashi peeked out from under the pillow to check the clock on his desk. _...Morning?_

The muttering continued, and Tadashi felt a spark of irritation in his half-awake state. _Can't you talk to them __**later**__?_

"-no..." Hiro's muttering became coherent momentarily, before it dropped back into the range of indiscernibility.

_Did I say that out loud?_ Tadashi didn't remember voicing his thoughts, but he supposed he could have. He glanced over at the opening in the divider, unable to make out a light that might come from a cellphone screen. As his brain began to shake off the fuzz of sleep, he realized the improbability of Hiro actually talking to someone at this time of night. Or at any time, really.

Tadashi swung his feet over the side of the bed, padding quietly to the other side of the room. Sure enough, there was no sign of a phone, and Hiro was beginning to toss in his sleep, the mumbling getting louder. He sighed, rubbing the back of his neck as he debated whether waking him would make things better or worse. The kid needed his sleep, but if things were going to get worse...

A small cry, distinctly sounding like a muted call for help, made up his mind for him. Tadashi sat on the edge of the bed, threading his fingers through Hiro's unruly hair repeatedly, trying to calm the shaking.

"Hiro." Tadashi spoke loud enough to wake him normally, but Hiro didn't respond, other than to try and move away from the sound of his voice. "Hey, you've gotta wake up. _Hiro._"

Hiro's eyes snapped open, unseeing as he jerked away from Tadashi. "No, no, no, no, no-" His terror brought a sheen of tears to his eyes as he tried to scramble away from the other person.

His dream-hazed mind saw the being from the screen. It had escaped. It wasn't trapped in the computer anymore, and it was there and it was going to drag him away and-

"Hey, it's okay. Hiro, look at me." When Tadashi saw the panic remaining in Hiro's gaze, not fading despite his words, he realized he wasn't hearing him, and the room was too dark to see in.

Hiro relaxed minutely when the being retreated, going back towards the desk area. He hadn't deserved to die. He hadn't done anything wrong, the ghost was just checking. He was going to live, it had just been a mistake. A bright light emanated from the desk lamp, and Hiro squinted against the glare.

"Hiro?" And suddenly Tadashi was there, hand still resting on the cord of the lamp.

It was definitely Tadashi, it couldn't be a trick. He still had the purple bruise on the side of his face that he'd earned the night before from his project. Dark circles lined the underside of his eyes in a way that no ghost could accurately mimic. The look of concern and wariness, with a hint of underlying irritation couldn't be faked or imagined, not this well.

"Dashi?" Even with his certainty, he wanted reassurance that it really and truly was his brother standing in front of him.

Relief colored the older brother's face, shoulders slumping as the tension left his body. He chuckled tiredly, walking over and ruffling Hiro's hair. "Yeah, it's me, knucklehead."

Hiro nodded tiredly, falling back against the pillows. "Stay 'way from the computer."

"Oh?" Tadashi did his best to hide his grin, wanting to hear Hiro's explanation before poking fun. "And why's that?"

"Turned on by 'tself." Hiro pulled the blankets over his head again, facing Tadashi and the computer. "It's haunted..."

"Oh, it is?" Tadashi approached the monitor, shaking the mouse to wake the computer.

-'_Automatic Update Complete'-_

Tadashi chuckled at the onscreen message. "Well, it must be a very nice ghost if it's upgrading your tech for you."

"Huh?" Hiro pulled the blankets back from his face, making his way off of the bed with the comforter still wrapped around him. He flushed red when he saw the message. "Oh."

"What was that?" Tadashi cupped a hand to his ear. "I'm almost certain I heard: 'I'll never watch a horror movie again, big brother. I've learned my lesson.'"

"You need to get your hearing checked." Hiro pouted, crossing his arms as best he could with the thick blanket in the way.

Tadashi chuckled, ruffling Hiro's hair fondly before yawning widely. He sighed, rubbing the back of his neck as he checked the clock. It was too early for breakfast, but trying to go back to sleep right now might just lead to further nightmares...

Hiro pulled his blanket closer to himself, gnawing on his lower lip as he looked around the room. He wasn't tired. He didn't want to go back to sleep to face whatever dreams might be thrown at him this time. Maybe he could work on one of his robots, or even create a new one. His latest battle bot was kind of old, and-

The younger boy nearly jumped out of his skin when Mochi brushed by one of the hockey sticks balanced precariously on the wall, causing it to fall to the floor with a clatter. Stupid cat…

Walking over towards the stairs, Tadashi motioned for Hiro to follow. Hiro only tripped slightly on his blanket once while going down the stairs. His older brother was setting up the game system and turning down the volume on the tv.

"Maybe this isn't such a good idea…" Hiro hesitated, looking back upstairs.

"It'll be fine, knucklehead." Tadashi popped in the disk before taking a seat on the couch. "A couple rounds of Smash Bros will help pass the time."

Hiro gingerly took a seat on the couch, accepting the controller from Tadashi and watching as he immediately picked Link from the character selection screen.

"I'm using Pit this time, and you can't stop me." Hiro grinned, attempting to lighten up, despite his lingering fear. At least Smash Bros didn't have jump scares…

Tadashi rolled his eyes in response. "Okay, sir spam-a-lot."

The game started, and as predicted, Hiro used Pit's continual spam attacks to his advantage. Hiro triumphantly won the first round. Tadashi won the second and third… and fourth, before Hiro made him change out his character.

This continued until Hiro felt his eyelids begin to droop. The fear-induced adrenalin had worn off, dropping his energy levels below that required to remain conscious. He shook his head to ward off the tiredness, unwilling to go back to sleep. It didn't help much.

Tadashi paused the game when Hiro's controller slid out of his hands, clattering to the floor and startling Hiro out of his daze. "You _can_ go to sleep, you know…"

"Don't wanna go back upstairs…" Hiro mumbled. The trek up the stairs would wake him enough that his brain would begin to spin horror stories again. He'd just power through the night.

Tadashi chuckled, picking up the mostly discarded blanket and dropping it over Hiro. "You don't have to."

Hiro settled on the couch with his blanket as Tadashi stood and stretched. After Tadashi turned off the game console, he headed for the stairs, certain Hiro was already asleep.

"Tadashi?"

"Hm?" He stopped in his tracks, turning towards Hiro again.

"Can you stay down here?" Hiro asked plaintively.

"Let me grab another blanket, and I'll be right down, okay?"

When Hiro nodded, Tadashi hurried up the stairs, grabbing a blanket and pillow. He half expected Hiro to have passed out by the time he got back, but those bleary eyes were still half open when Tadashi set up his make-shift bed on the floor in front of the couch.

"I'm right here, Hiro."

Hiro hummed, finally closing his eyes to attempt sleep again. It couldn't be too bad this time around. Tadashi was between him and the screen, and the first rays of sunlight were peeking through the window. It'd be easier to fall asleep now than at night when ghosts were active.

Besides, Tadashi was here now.

It would have definitely been worse to wake up to him gone.


End file.
